What is procedural programming?

Programming Paradigm Concepts

Eleanor Thomas

Senior Data Analytics Engineer

Procedural programming: an imperative programming paradigm in which programs are built using procedures
Procedure (subroutine): a series of steps that can be referenced and rerun multiple times
NOTE: Procedural programming is a type of imperative programming; not all imperative programming is procedural

Imperative and procedural programming

Procedures in procedural programming

Procedures: how procedural programming achieves separation of responsibilities
Procedures aid with modularity
Allow for a section of code to be rerun in multiple places efficiently
Help with organization and readability

Checklist

In Python, procedures are implemented as functions

ducks = ['Huey', 'Dewey', 'Louie']
sorted_ducks = sort_ducks(ducks)

Ducks in a row

def print_initial(name):
    initial = name[0]
    print(initial)

print_initial("Marwa")
print_initial("Celia")
print_initial("Raqael")

Output:

"M"
"C"
"R"

Programming Paradigm Concepts